The future of sustainable battery cell production lies in the heart of NRW – or rather: in Münster/Westphalia. After a construction period of just under nine months, the first construction phase of the Fraunhofer Research Institute for Battery Cell Production (Fraunhofer FFB) was completed in the Hansa-BusinessPark industrial and commercial park. On February 2, 2023, NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst handed over the "FFB PreFab" buildings to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft to promote applied research.
Here, Fraunhofer FFB is now building a sample line for complete battery cell production on a smaller scale. However, this is only a first, important step, because in a few months, construction work will begin on around 20,000 square meters of additional production and research space in Münster. In the "FFB Fab", the Fraunhofer Institute will later develop and produce battery cells for research purposes in the gigawatt range. With both facilities – PreFab and FFB Fab – the Fraunhofer FFB will be one of the largest research construction projects currently underway in Germany and is unique worldwide in terms of its overall design.
"North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the world's most important industrial regions. To keep it that way, we support the transformation to climate-neutral industry. The "FFB Fab" in Münster is a model of how this change can be achieved: through research, science, innovation and transfer to industry," emphasized Hendrik Wüst on the occasion of the handover of the buildings.